Former Cisco Exec McCool Lands at Firetide

It was a bit of a mystery in April when John McCool–for years one of the most prominent people at Cisco Systems–left the company suddenly without explanation. We now have an answer: Firetide.

The Silicon Valley company on Monday is announcing that McCool has become president and chief executive, charged with building a broader audience for its wireless networking technology.

Firetide has been around since 2003, one of a number of startups formed when the notion of municipal Wi-Fi networks was beginning to spread. But providing wireless Internet access to local residents failed to turn into a goldmine.